David Duval won the 2001 Open Championship, but it was an extremely different story 18 years later.
Duval got off to a solid start through two holes at Royal Portrush on Thursday — with two straight birdies — and then it was all downhill from there.
Duval finished the opening round with a 91, which was made possible by shooting a nonuple bogey on 14 and playing the wrong ball.
Yes, you read that correctly. A professional golfer competing at the highest level of the sport managed to play the wrong ball like he was some average dude at the local public course. Duval himself was a bit shocked that the embarrassment happened.
He explained how he managed to play the wrong ball, via ESPN:
“Just done something I’ve never done as a professional … It was a long day, a rough day. A very unique, awful situation.”
Duval continued, taking ownership for the blunder:
“I get up to the front of the green, I discover it was the wrong No. 2 Titleist. I am at fault, I didn’t check it myself close enough. It happened to me once before — a marshal is standing right next to the ball. … It’s just my mistake.”
Duval had already earned two penalties for losing his ball on No. 7. He was hit with a two-stroke penalty for playing the wrong ball.
The result was a scorecard that looked like this:
Uh, yikes.
He should look on the bright side, I seriously doubt he can do worse on Friday.
